SSC
You Kant Dismiss Universalizability
Scott Alexander reevaluates Kant's philosophy of universalizability, applying it to modern ethical dilemmas and exploring its relationship with utilitarianism.
19 min read 2,851 words
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utilitarianism
Essays tagged “utilitarianism”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Essays on utilitarianism
35 essaysSSC
If It’s Worth Doing, It’s Worth Doing With Made-Up Statistics
Scott Alexander argues for the value of using quantification and made-up statistics in decision-making, even when imperfect, as they often outperform intuition and reveal biases in our thinking.
10 min read 1,538 words
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Utilitarianism for Engineers, Part II
Scott Alexander creates an amateur utility measurement test to explore the feasibility of comparing utilities in utilitarianism, inviting readers to participate despite its limitations.
2 min read 273 words
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Book Review: After Virtue
Scott Alexander critiques Alasdair MacIntyre's 'After Virtue', finding fault with its arguments for virtue ethics and its historical claims about morality in ancient societies.
15 min read 2,290 words
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Whose Utilitarianism?
Scott Alexander examines his doubts about utilitarianism and explores moral contractualism as a potential alternative for grounding morality.
15 min read 2,205 words
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Poor Folks Do Smile…For Now
Scott Alexander discusses Robin Hanson's vision of a future with emulated humans, debating the preservation of human values and the nature of future societal coordination.
16 min read 2,355 words
LW
Consequentialism FAQ
Scott shares a draft FAQ arguing for consequentialism, targeting intelligent readers without philosophy backgrounds, and requests feedback especially from non-consequentialists.
1 min read 133 words
LW
Eight Short Studies On Excuses
Scott uses eight game theory scenarios to show that excuses are evaluated not on truth or morality, but on whether accepting them would undermine credible commitment to rules, since accepting one excuse means accepting all equally good ones.
21 min read 3,212 words
LW
The Trouble With "Good"
Scott explains that while people naturally use emotivism (the 'yay/boo' theory) for moral reasoning, this creates serious problems by lumping everything into 'good' or 'bad' categories, and argues that converting moral debates into specific questions about actions and applying utilitarianism provides a better framework for resolving complicated issues.
13 min read 1,962 words
LW
The Least Convenient Possible World
Scott argues that rationalists should test their objections against 'the least convenient possible world,' where convenient excuses are removed, in order to find their true reasons and avoid dodging hard questions.
10 min read 1,438 words